Donny Football talks with NFL VP of Broadcast Planning Mike North

KDKA-FM / 93.7 The Fan

What we learned about the 2025 schedule

Transcript

00:00mike north the vp of nfl broadcast planning here on sports radio 93 7 the fan mike speaking of

00:06buys do some teams when they're coming off an international game do they request a buy

00:12like for example did the steelers request to have a buy in week five after they play in dublin

00:18when we were first kind of dipping our toe into the water on international games we were

00:27incredibly accommodating about buys like oh my goodness we're gonna go play a game in london of

00:31course you need your buy the week after like that's a long trip but if you think about it like

00:36for the steelers for instance like going over to dublin playing in the afternoon and then coming

00:41back like they're probably back in their facility by midnight like that's less than if you played

00:47at san fran or at seattle so these international games at least in the uk and europe they're

00:52becoming a little bit more routine so we've gotten rid of the rule that said you know teams had the

00:56option to get their buy now the buys fall where they fall and i don't know that the steelers were

01:02happy with their buy in week five i'm not sure anybody's volunteering for a week five buy but

01:07coming back from a long trip a little out of your routine they get their thursday game coming a little

01:13bit later so you get like that mini buy after the thursday um teams no longer get to you know require

01:20request their buy after international they might get it they might not the buys move around like

01:26bad luck moves around you might get a three-game road trip you might get two short week thursdays

01:30there's always something that the clubs are looking at but nobody's guaranteed the buy after the

01:34international games anymore and speaking of the international games i think it just comes with the

01:40growth of the international games i know that roger goodell told uh at least one publication

01:45recently he thinks that there could be at some point 16 international games per season which

01:52would have every single team in the nfl playing in one uh how much more difficult does that make

01:59things for you guys no incredibly uh he doesn't care look i mean he's been very public about you know

02:06our international growth strategy and you know can we get to 10 12 maybe someday 16 international

02:12games the answer is yes we will figure it out we will do it it won't be without some challenges and

02:17some you know uh i don't want to say heartbreak but there will definitely be an impact uh but it's

02:24doable like everything else in the schedule i mean there's going to be a trade-off and you we're just

02:28going to have to figure out you know where our priorities lie and if our priorities lie in continuing

02:33to expand the international footprint and the strategic growth opportunity that we have by going into more

02:39of these markets it really does seem like every time we go to a new place there's two or three more

02:44kind of raising their hands once they see it and our international group does an incredible job they do

02:48the same thing at the super bowl they bring all the prospective future hosts to these international

02:54games and once somebody from you know paris sees what's going on in madrid they're going to raise their

03:01hand and now we're talking about australia next year and maybe someday abu dhabi or the uae i mean it

03:08there's really no limit to what we could do uh as long as everybody's you know committed to the

03:13initiative and and aware that yeah there's there's going to have to be some compromises in here

03:19somewhere if we keep growing like this this is a question that a lot of people have in pittsburgh

03:24because it's like an ongoing yearly debate because the steelers rarely open the season at home and my

03:32thought of it has always been well if the pirates have a home sunday at 135 the same week as week one of

03:42the nfl season very unlikely that the steelers who share parking lots with that team will also be

03:49home is that taken into account with teams around the league or is that just something that has

03:55randomly happened all of these years now no it's definitely uh impacted by the pirate schedule um

04:02the interesting thing is you know let's say we go two or three years in a row where the pirates have

04:08a home game on the opening sunday and so we can or we won't schedule a steelers home game

04:14that weekend and then the next year you've actually got a window the pirates are on the road or the

04:19series ends on thursday or whatever it is and there is this window this opportunity to get the steelers home

04:24and we don't do it then you might run into another stretch of two or three or four years in a row where

04:30the pirates are using their building that weekend so constantly aware of it um certainly no surprises

04:37for omar and and the guys over at the steelers when the pirates have the building when they're

04:42playing a home game sunday week one we do not could we i know you guys have done it before right i'm

04:47pretty sure we played an afternoon game for one and an evening game for the other and maybe someday

04:52when the pirates get good again and start making playoff runs in october we'll have to figure out a way

04:57to do like a steelers game at one o'clock in the afternoon and maybe the pirates hosting an nlcs game

05:02two eight o'clock that night i know you guys can do it but in the regular season for them and for us

05:07it's usually something we try to avoid yeah yeah the last time and the only time to my knowledge

05:14was in september of 2013 the steelers had a home sunday night game against the bears in week three and

05:23the pirates had a one o'clock or a 135 game at home but otherwise uh i don't think we've ever seen it

05:30and that that's something i always point out to people you wouldn't believe the flack though because

05:34it's just like bro nobody's going to a pirate game in september anyway they can do this and i'm like i

05:40think it has something to do with it so i'm glad you cleared that up mike uh speaking more with the

05:45steelers and their impending quarterback at least we think aaron rogers how much of an impact did he

05:53play uh in your scheduling of the steelers yeah you you know what we know um nobody should assume

06:02anything uh with aaron and uh obviously i think uh the steelers schedule is more interesting i think

06:09the nfl is more interesting if he plays but it's whatever june right and we still don't know so

06:15we definitely didn't build this schedule assuming he was going to be the quarterback if he were if we

06:21knew today that aaron was playing for the steelers i'm not sure we would have had to you know call it

06:26restraint to schedule the steelers for one o'clock on you know sunday afternoon of week one i imagine

06:33he and the team would have been in a prime time window i think it would have been one of the more

06:37interesting games in week one um so as it is you know it's steelers jets week one at worst it's

06:44justin fields against one of his old teams at best it's justin and aaron against one of their

06:49old teams the one game we probably did kind of pay just a touch of extra attention to was the

06:54packers game obviously if he's playing quarterback for the steelers this would be the first time he's

06:59playing against the packers since he left and that's probably not a game that would belong at

07:04one o'clock on sunday afternoon available in 15 or 20 percent of the country or maybe shouldn't be

07:10uh you know in the double double header with cbs and fox you'd probably end up imbalancing that

07:16window if if one of them had aaron rogers against his old team so uh that was probably the one game

07:20that we probably at least kind of hedged on just a little it's still packers steelers it's still a

07:26good sunday night monday night thursday night game regardless of who's playing quarterback for either

07:31of those two teams but if he does come back and he does play for the steelers that one's obviously

07:35going to get a lot of attention definitely needed to make sure that that one wasn't lost or buried

07:40somewhere in a window where not every fan could see it because that's surely going to be one of

07:44the storylines of the season if he does come back

07:46you

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